prepping the sales

Good morning,

Welcome to the new people on the list - as a reminder, I am Dragos from Project Arrow, where we guide founders with what to do and who to talk to in order to get funded and accelerate their startups.

Let’s go,
Dragos

The fall is a good time for raising capital - everybody’s back from the holidays ready to push through the last quarter before the winter holidays.

Here’s a few things you need to consider for prepping.

Build momentum

Facts first: because business is bad for the VCs these days, investors won’t even look at your startup unless you have traction or at least show some solid demand evidence for your work. If you have that, you’re fine - but better than traction is building momentum around it, that’s a great hook to get investors attention and create a bit of fomo around it.

The trick is to align the momentum for your startup growth to the investors pitch roadshow and you will have a strong selling point working in your favour.

Build a large list of investors leads.

That’s sales 101 - you need to have an extended list of potential investors and segment it based on your investors/startup fit.

You may think that a list of 20-30 names should do - it might, but better than that is a list of leads that 10x that number. The markets are bad, you need to scour them thoroughly and identify who is the best fit for you - once you have the list, research all the names in order to personalise the pitch (see below) and rank the list from the less interesting to the more interesting. Start connecting with the former and learn and adapt based on the feedback you get while you’re progressing. A/B the messaging too.

Understand the investor/startup fit.

A big list of names and emails is worth nothing unless you understand what those guys are into and what they’re looking to buy. You need to fit that intel to your specific objective for this fundraising effort - clearly articulate what kind of investors exactly you are after, what is a good fit for you, and what obvious hurdles certain people will have to overcome.

So for example, if your traction numbers are not good, make sure your leads are funding pre-revenue or pre-launch startups. If you’re a hardware startup, for example, make sure the investors are interested in hardware. Or if you’re from Berlin pitching an investor from London, make sure they can/will invest in Germany. You get the idea.

Not last, don't believe for a second the we invest in exceptional startups no matter their industry or geography discourse - that is just misleading VC marketing. Everybody has their own sweet spots - you can learn them by studying the investment track records as well as their thesis (if they have one) or marketing literature. You could use tools like Nordic9 for digging into the track record, btw - you are the sum of your actions, a track is usually indicative of an investors appetite.

In other words, you need to identify investors comfort zone to what you sell to make a conversation worth it.

Write an executive summary for your startup.

Or a memo - that should provide you with clarity of thought about who you are, what you do and what you want from investors. Be able to clearly articulate your core. Your positioning. Why you are special. How you intend to spend the money.

This should complement the pitch deck, which is the marketing story reflecting exactly this core tenets of what you do.

Get your expectations straight

You do this by talking to the right people - set up the right expectations by learning from others who have done it. Going at it alone is hard as it is - investing a minimal amount for a professional reality check and guidance along your progress can ultimately save you a lot of time, efforts and money. It is what we do at Project Arrow, of course - but there’s many similar directions you can explore regardless, getting advice about your fundraising will boost your chances. Athletes hire coaches for winning, right? You’re in for the win!

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Fundraising is a lot of work and it can be stressful - it is a full time job - and you need to give yourself a fair chance, even though the market is adverse nowadays. If it’s worth doing it, it’s worth doing it well and that means understanding your context and having a clear plan to execute - drop me an email if you need help.

Community

Startups recently seeded
If you want a full list of interesting startup raises from all over Europe, you can go check Monday CET. Below a selection of the more interesting ones:

🇩🇪 Cardino - marketplace for selling and buying electric vehicles (Berlin)
🇪🇸 Genie - low/no-code tools used for quickly creating and deploying data apps (Barcelona)
🇳🇱 Orquesta - no-code single collaboration platform enabling companies to integrate and operate LLM products (Amsterdam)
🇳🇴 Tequs - tech alternative to CO2 heat pumps (Oslo)
🇸🇪 Wellon - subscription-based ecommerce service that provides pre-packaged vitamins and supplements based on an initial digital wellness assessment (Stockholm)

Did you just raise funding for your startup? Hit reply and we’ll feature it here.

Try
- customer simulation platform using influencer audiences and 1st-party data - link
- video editor that uses AI to make editing videos and adding motion graphics 10x faster and easier - link

Learn
- how to cold email investors - link
- how to drive word of mouth - link
- 35 different virtual icebreakers for virtual and hybrid meetings - link

Read
- What to do when investors say no - link
- Elon’s bio

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